Congrats! What type of rifle set up are you using? Does it have a hunting or varmint profile barrel? You will find the heavier/thicker barrel, and a smooth trigger will contribute to higher scores. With those out of the way, you can focus more on reading the wind with less distraction. What type/power scope are you using?

I am not trying to be critical, but give you the best guidance I can share.

Congrats! What type of rifle set up are you using? Does it have a hunting or varmint profile barrel? You will find the heavier/thicker barrel, and a smooth trigger will contribute to higher scores. With those out of the way, you can focus more on reading the wind with less distraction. What type/power scope are you using?

I am not trying to be critical, but give you the best guidance I can share.

Using plain jane Savage Axis. Surprisingly, it's not walking on me as the barrel heats up through the string. I've been using a majority of my time to help keep barrel temp down.

Using a cheap truglo 8-32x44. It's worked and has tracked pretty good so far. I'm not going to do anything longer than 600yd for several years. I want to get several years of experience under my belt first. I do have a 20moa base on the way though.

I added 4.6 pounds to the stock and lightened up trigger pull from 7.5# to 3.5# which helped a bunch today as compared to last weekend.

I do have in the plans to save up for a NF scope though, and eventually a Savage F-Class rifle.

I can appreciate where you are coming from. It is not so much keeping the barrel cool, it is minimizing the harmonic barrel vibrations caused by the bullet moving through the bore.

I understand where you are coming from with respect to using what you have on hand. That has been my approach in my quest to build a handicapped friendly rifle.

The greatest task you have at hand is making a sub moa rifle. Back before my accident, I shot a 24" barreled Remington 700 Varmint Special with a Weaver KT15 at 1000 yards. I was lazy and never really worked on making my hand loads better than 1 moa. At that time, I was loading Lake City Match cases with CCI BR2 primers, 40.5 gr of IMR4064 and the Sierra 175 gr MatchKing. That load generated about 2550 fps and held the 9 ring consistently when fired with a sling, not certain how that would shoot off a bipod or rest. I will start that load development in a few weeks as I build a new 308 thousand yard F class TR rifle. My AR platform rifle shoots well at 1000 yards, but becomes more marginal as I get close to sea level.

Yeah, I think if I tweak my handloads a bit, it'll help tighten up a bit more what I got on hand. I figure if I can get decent with a cheap setup, I should be able to do pretty good with a good setup.

I know at some point, I'll get to where my equipment is what's holding back, that's the point when I plan on stepping up my game with better equipment. At that point, I figure I'll have the experience in reading wind and whatnot, that I'll be able to really put the quality equipment to good use.

I had thought about using the 168 SMK, but decided to go ahead and get the 175gr pills. I did notice A LOT of folks are using Berger VLD match bullets, not so many SMK. I like Sierra personally though.

I don't have a chrony yet, but it is the absolute next thing I'm getting to help with dialing in elevation for the new loads.

It is not so much keeping the barrel cool, it is minimizing the harmonic barrel vibrations caused by the bullet moving through the bore.

A given barreled action vibrates at the same frequency and amplitude for every shot fired with a given load. The only thing you can change is the amplitued by using more or less powder. If you want to get minimum amplitudes in a 30 caliber barreled action's vibrations, chamber it for the .30 Luger round; that's the smallest 30 caliber cartridge I know of.

What's more important is where the bullet leaves in the muzzle axis vertical swing through a small arc. Bullets leaving faster will leave at a different angle than slower ones. If all the bullets leave on the muzzle axis up swing just before it's at its peak, slower ones will leave at a higher angle than faster ones and their trajectories will compromise so they both hit the same place on the target; the ideal and most accurate situation.

No properly made barrel correctly fit to a receiver will change point of impact as its heated up. Any barrel that does change point of impact going from ambient to very hot has poor metal properties or is fit to the receiver without the receiver's face being squared up with the barrel's chamber and threaded tenon axis. Match rifles so built will shoot dozens of shots to the same place as they go from cold to skin-burning hot. Few, if any, factory sporting rifles are so fit, hence, their typical issues of walking shots on target as their barrels heat up. Have your factory barrel refit to its factory receiver by facing the receiver properly then putting in a thin shim between the barrel and receiver so it clocks in the same maintaining the correct headspace and the shot-walking issues typically go away providing the barrel's totally free floating in the first place.

Best accuracy with any bullet happens when it's a bit larger than the barrel's groove diameter. At least .0003" larger but it can be as much as .0015" larger and still shoot no worse than 1/2 MOA at 600 yards. If your barrel's groove diameter is larger than the bullets you shoot, really good accuracy is mostly a dream.

__________________
US Navy Distinguished Marksman Badge 153
Former US Navy & Palma Rifle Team Member
NRA High Power Master & Long Range High Master
NRA Smallbore Prone Master

I noticed yesterday as I was shooting the 2nd match, rounds 11-17 all pretty much went to the same spot more or less. It was nice to have a consistent string. I think the gun is capable. It is a free floating barrel and I noticed that their is a notch where it looks like there is a shim between barrel and receiver.

I think if I can tighten up on my reloading, it'll help a little. Biggest part is just getting out to practice and finding some FMJ to practice shooting mechanics and reading wind. That's been my biggest hurdle.

So far in my life, I've just deer and hog hunted, taking shots no longer than 100yds. At the range I've never taken a shot longer than 200yds. I've learned, rather quickly, that reading wind at 200yds and at 600yds, don't correlate at all with each other. LOL. Making adjustments for wind has been a steep learning curve as well. Good thing is though, that with each match, I've learned a great deal at reading wind, and have gained a great deal of experience. I've learned, and I've improved. I hope to keep with this trend until the last thing to do is upgrade equipment, then I'll have the experience to use it properly.

I did notice yesterday that the modifications I made to my rifle, greatly improved the match as well for me. The trigger was a lot nicer after taking a full coil off the spring. I'm thinking about taking another quarter of a coil or half a coil off to lighten it up just a tad more. Most videos I saw people were taking off 1 1/2 coils but I only took 1 off. I loved the trigger mod as compared to before.

The extra weight added to the rifle was very noticeable as well and it was nice.

Hi JW. Shot my first "official" F class match yesterday. I was very content with the outcome, shooting just shy of 94% @ 600 yds. I did a little experimenting, and made two discoveries. First, when the mirage is a heavy boil, I need to crank the scope's magnification down to eliminate mirage distortion of the bullseye. Second, I found that I shoot better using a lightweight shooting coat.

This may seem trivial for some, but over the past 40 years I have shot iron sights, and yesterday was the first time I shot a scope in competition.

Hi JW. Shot my first "official" F class match yesterday. I was very content with the outcome, shooting just shy of 94% @ 600 yds. I did a little experimenting, and made two discoveries. First, when the mirage is a heavy boil, I need to crank the scope's magnification down to eliminate mirage distortion of the bullseye. Second, I found that I shoot better using a lightweight shooting coat.

This may seem trivial for some, but over the past 40 years I have shot iron sights, and yesterday was the first time I shot a scope in competition.

Awesome. Sounds like you shot great!

I'm not quite there on y'all's level yet, but hope to be there soon. I have a match this weekend in Tulsa that I'm looking to improve on what I did last month though.

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